LOCAL NEWS

The Easter Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ is the capstone of the entire liturgical year. We enter into the historical and sacred Holy Week on Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, which sets the whole week apart. As a holy people, we make our final preparations for Easter morning — the greatest feast of the Church year.

Students at St. Matthew Catholic School are receiving help from well beyond the parish boundaries. Parishioners at St. Patrick in Scottsdale and Ascension in Fountain Hills make the weekly 20-25-mile trek to serve as tutors.

The Catholic Church experiences an annual surge in its worldwide membership during the Easter Vigil when it celebrates the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). This rite has been around since the first century when disciples of Jesus shared His message and brought people into the faith.

Deacon Peter Murphy has prayed, counseled, consoled and rejoiced with the men and women he has encountered in his parish of prison fences. As the director of Catholic ministries to prisons and jails, the work of the Church is ever present in the lives of the faithful, especially those living on the margins of life.

As the world welcomes a new pope, Catholics around the Diocese of Phoenix reacted to the first resignation of a pontiff in six centuries.

Catholics from the Americas and Argentina, including those who now live in Arizona, were particularly elated when the Vatican announced “Habemus Papam” March 13.

Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo A. Nevares will lead a pilgrimage next October to Mexico City and Guanajuato to mark the closing of the Year of Faith.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted blessed and dedicated the image of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, the newest stained glass window in the chapel, March 13 during a special evening liturgy. It’s the 10th window depicting a saint canonized or beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II to be installed in the chapel.

Catholics and those coming into the Church at the Easter Vigil know the story of Christ’s death and resurrection. Thanks to a recurring exhibit at a Valley parish, they can also gain a deeper understanding of a key object involved. This marks the second year that St. Maria Goretti Parish will host its Shroud of Turin exhibit in the final days of Lent.

Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, the leader of a large urban archdiocese in Latin America, was elected the 266th pope and took the name Francis. He is the first pope in history to come from the New World and the first non-European to be elected in almost 1,300 years.